You’ve earned the right to brag, yes, but not quite the right to complain.

In the San Diego Section, the Pirates’ success was unrivaled and dominance unequaled. However, their exclusion from the regional playoffs was far from unjust.

People tweeting, emailing, or giving the exclamation-point key a contusion on message boards tend to disagree with this stance. Same goes for CIF San Diego Section Commissioner Jerry Schniepp, who expressed his own disappointment in Oceanside’s ostracizing.

The Pirates won their last 11 games and breezed through most opponents like a marathoner running through tape. So why, folks ask, can’t they be one of two Division II teams representing SoCal in the playoffs?

“We were without question the best team in San Diego. They can’t take that away from us,” Oceanside coach John Carroll said. “We’ll let the politics take care of themselves, but we made our statement.”

The California Interscholastic Federation’s 10 section commissioners made a statement as well. Sunday, they all met to vote on which teams from across California would move on to regionals and eventually play for a state bowl championship.

Schniepp argued that Oceanside won its eighth section title in nine years, had handed San Joaquin Section champion Oakdale its only loss of the season, and hadn’t lost in 11 weeks. The commissioners decided that the Pirates wouldn’t have a chance to make it 12.

Tough choice. Controversial choice. And also — the right choice.

The first team selected was Gardena Serra, which had lost to Harbor City Narbonne and West Hills Chaminade, but had also beaten Long Beach Poly while avenging the Chaminade loss to win a Southern Section championship.

The thing is, Narbonne happens to the top-ranked team in Southern California, while Long Beach Poly won the prestigious Pac-5 title. So in terms of the SoCal football landscape, Serra’s season was pretty much like a dude losing to LeBron James and Kobe Bryant early on, but then beating Kevin Durant and Kobe in the rematch.

Excusable losses and incredible wins. Serra was in.

So next it came down to Edison and Oceanside. Both with one loss. Both section champions. Both with a defeat fairly early in the season.

Problem for the Pirates is — their defeat was to a four-loss Temecula Chaparral team that lost in the first round of the playoffs, while Edison’s was a six-point loss to storied Santa Ana Mater Dei, which made it all the way to the section championship.

In some ways, it doesn’t seem fair to compare teams by losses alone. It would sort of be like deciding on who the better band was based on their worst albums.

But in an arena where the surest way to reach your goal is by winning, failing to do so every week could set up a blockade by year’s end.

To many people’s surprise, CalHiSports.com forecast such a result last week. Throughout most of the season, Oceanside was the website’s No. 1 ranked team from Division II in Southern California, yet after the section semifinals, the Pirates dropped to fourth despite having won their 10th game in a row.

In college football, it would have been akin to second-ranked Alabama dropping to fifth after beating Georgia. But CalHiSports.com editor Mark Tennis, who agreed that his rankings may have some effect on how the commissioners vote, said the only motivation behind the decision was truth.

“We thought about dropping Oceanside the week before, but we decided to go one more week in case Edison lost,” Tennis said. “Chaparral ended up not being as good as we thought they were, and toward the end of the season, we want our ranking to reflect how we think the commissioners are going to vote. I would much rather be the person who said, ‘Look, we don’t think Oceanside is going to get picked, we don’t think you’re going to get picked,’ then say ‘We’re standing behind Oceanside’ even if we don’t think they’re getting in.”

It’s justified. Edison won a championship in the eternally competitive Southern Section, which Chaparral just-so happens to hail from. And the fact that Oceanside won state bowl titles in 2007 and 2009 should have zero effect on the outcome — not when high school rosters change about as often as Oregon football jerseys.

Carroll said Tuesday that while a state bowl title would be nice, San Diego County has more schools than about 15 states, so winning the section is a satisfying equivalent.

So the Pirates shouldn’t be frowning about their season ending, but grinning that they ended it on top.